Comparison of the 2013 and 2019 Nationwide Surveys on the Management of Chronic Kidney Disease by General Practitioners in Japan.

In 2019, the Japan Physicians Association conducted a second nationwide survey on the management of chronic kidney disease (CKD) among the Japanese general practitioners (GPs). We aimed to clarify the changes in the state of CKD medical care by GPs since the 2013 survey. The 2013 and 2019 surveys included 2214 and 601 GPs, respectively, who voluntarily participated.

Nationwide questionnaire survey on the management of chronic kidney disease for general practitioners in Japan.

Background: In 2019, a nationwide questionnaire survey on the management of chronic kidney disease (CKD) was circulated to general practitioners (GPs) throughout Japan by The Japan Physicians Association. The aim was to assess the current state of CKD medical care in the country and evaluate the utilization of CKD-specific guidelines in the treatment by GPs.

Methods: The voluntary survey targeted all members of Japan Physicians Association, a nationwide organization consisting primarily of 15,000 GPs in clinics throughout the country.

Association between serum lipids, polyunsaturated fatty acids, and prognosis in maintenance hemodialysis patients.

Introduction: Risks of mortality and cardiovascular disease (CVD) are significantly higher in hemodialysis (HD) patients than in the general population, where dyslipidemia is an established risk factor for CVD and mortality. There is no clear conclusion, however, whether dyslipidemia is a significant risk factor for CVD and mortality in HD patients. Similarly, the association between the polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and the mortality is not clear in HD patients.

Tonsillectomy with steroid pulse therapy has more effect on the relapse rate than steroid pulse monotherapy in IgA nephropathy patients.

Aims: Both steroid pulse (SP) monotherapy and the combination of tonsillectomy and SP therapy (TSP) are effective for achieving clinical remission (CR), defined as negative hematuria and proteinuria, in patients with IgA nephropathy (IgAN). The role of tonsillectomy in the treatment of IgAN has been analyzed only from the aspect of CR or renal survival after TSP treatment, so there is no evidence of its effect on the relapse after CR.

Methods: We retrospectively investigated relapse (re-appearance of urinary abnormalities) from CR after TSP or SP monotherapy in 62 IgAN patients (mean follow-up, 70.

Vascular calcification estimated by aortic calcification area index is a significant predictive parameter of cardiovascular mortality in hemodialysis patients.

Background: Vascular calcification is a feature of arteriosclerosis. In hemodialysis (HD) patients, vascular calcification progresses rapidly. This study used the aortic calcification area index (ACAI), an index of vascular calcification, to evaluate vascular calcification factors in HD patients, to investigate correlations between ACAI and long-term prognosis and to assess correlations between various factors and long-term prognosis.

Improved assessment of aortic calcification in Japanese patients undergoing maintenance hemodialysis.

Objective: Vascular calcification is a feature of arteriosclerosis and in hemodialysis (HD) patients it may be severe, even at a relatively young age, and is closely related to the overall prognosis. We used the aortic calcification area index (ACAI), derived from the aortic calcification index (ACI), to evaluate and analyze the risk factors for abdominal aortic calcification in HD patients.

Patients And Methods: Subjects comprised 137 patients on maintenance HD.

Tolvaptan, a selective oral vasopressin V2 receptor antagonist, ameliorates podocyte injury in puromycin aminonucleoside nephrotic rats.

Background: Proteinuria caused by glomerular disease is characterized by podocyte injury. Vasopressin V2 receptor antagonists are effective in reducing albuminuria, although their actions on glomerular podocytes have not been explored. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of tolvaptan, a selective oral V2 receptor antagonist, on podocytes in a puromycin aminonucleoside (PAN)-induced nephrosis rat model.

Renal protective effects of pitavastatin on spontaneously hypercholesterolaemic Imai Rats.

Background: Independent of their lipid-lowering effects, 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase inhibitors have renal protective effects on various models of progressive renal diseases, therefore, additional therapeutic advantages have been considered. In the present study, using spontaneously hypercholesterolaemic Imai rats, we examined the protective effects of pitavastatin on renal injuries and the oxidative modification of the low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL), since oxidized lipoproteins are speculated to be involved in the mechanism of this rat strain's renal injuries.

Methods: Male Imai rats were treated with pitavastatin (n = 11) at a dose of 100 mg/kg diet or received no specific therapy as controls (n = 11) from 10 to 22 weeks of age.

Various dietary protein intakes and progression of renal failure in spontaneously hypercholesterolemic Imai rats.

Background/aim: Dietary protein restriction is known to be beneficial in the preservation of the renal function in patients with chronic renal failure. Recently, the effect of varying quantity and quality of dietary protein intakes was also studied. This study investigates the effects of different dietary animal proteins on renal function in spontaneously hypercholesterolemic Imai rats that exhibit renal lesions similar to human focal and segmental glomerulosclerosis.

[Fish meat retarding the progression of chronic renal failure in spontaneously hypercholesterolemic rats].

Objective: To investigate the effects of different dietary proteins of fish meat and casein upon the progression of chronic renal failure (CRF) in spontaneously hypercholesterolemic (SHC) rats.

Methods: 48 SHC rats of 10 weeks of age were randomly divided into four groups, and placed on diets containing 20% and 40% casein or fish protein respectively till they were 22 weeks of age. 24-hour urine collections were obtained along with measurements of systolic blood pressure and blood were drew from their tail vein evry 4 weeks.

The efficacy of vitamin E against oxidative damage and autoantibody production in systemic lupus erythematosus: a preliminary study.

The hypothesis that reactive oxygen species (ROS) modification of DNA is involved in the development of autoantibodies in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is supported by the enhanced reactivity of anti-DNA antibodies to ROS-denatured DNA. We studied the efficacy of vitamin E against both oxidative DNA damage and autoantibody production in SLE. Urinary 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-OHdG), an indicator of oxidative DNA damage, and the anti-double-stranded DNA (anti-ds DNA) antibody, a predictor of disease activity, were assayed twice, first during the season with the most intense sunlight and then later in the year.

Ion-trap tandem mass spectrometric analysis of Amadori-glycated phosphatidylethanolamine in human plasma with or without diabetes.

Peroxidized phospholipid-mediated cytotoxicity is involved in the pathophysiology of diseases [i.e., an abnormal increase of phosphatidylcholine hydroperoxide (PCOOH) in plasma of type 2 diabetic patients].

[Levels of serum ascorbate and its metabolites in hemodialysis patients].

The status of ascorbic acid (AA) in dialysis patients is the subject of debate. Some reports have found AA to be deficient in dialysis patients, while others have found that AA is not deficient. In an attempt to confirm AA serum concentrations in dialysis patients, we analyzed the concentrations of AA as well as its metabolites using the specific determination of AA with chemical derivatization and the HPLC method.

Deletion of the kinase domain in death-associated protein kinase attenuates tubular cell apoptosis in renal ischemia-reperfusion injury.

Death-associated protein kinase (DAPK) is a calcium/calmodulin-dependent serine/threonine kinase localized to renal tubular epithelial cells. To elucidate the contribution of DAPK activity to apoptosis in renal ischemia-reperfusion (IR) injury, wild-type (WT) mice and DAPK-mutant mice, which express a DAPK deletion mutant that lacks a portion of the kinase domain, were subjected to renal pedicle clamping and reperfusion. After IR, DAPK activity was elevated in WT kidneys but not in mutant kidneys (1785.

Effect of environmental changes on oxidative deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) damage in systemic lupus erythematosus.

In a study conducted in Japan, the authors used urinary 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) to study the effects of high-intensity and low-intensity sunlight on oxidative damage to deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) in patients who had systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). During late May through early September (i.e.

[Interstitial nephritis induced by mesalazine].

This report concerns the first case in Japan of interstitial nephritis induced by mesalazine, a new therapeutic agent for inflammatory bowel disease, such as ulcerative colitis. Twenty-two cases have already been reported in other countries. The patient, a 27-year-old woman, was treated with mesalazine for her ulcerative colitis at another hospital.

Effects of antioxidants on kidney disease.

Kidney mesangial cells (MCs) and vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) are closely related in terms of origin, microscopic anatomy, histochemistry, and contractility. This relationship suggests a similarity between kidney glomerular sclerosis and atherosclerosis. Vitamin E appears beneficial in the prevention and treatment of coronary disease and also inhibits the proliferation of VSMCs in vitro.